According to the statistics released by Suzhou Customs on Apr. 21, Suzhou’s foreign trade in the first quarter of 2025 totaled 632.52 billion yuan, an increase of 7.3% over the same period last year, accounting for 6.1% and 46.6% of the country’s and the province’s total respectively. Its exports increased by 11.5% to 403.17 billion yuan, hitting a new record high. In March alone, the city’s imports and exports reached 228.05 billion yuan, with a 12.2-percent monthly growth rate hitting a 14-month high.
In the first 3 months this year, the foreign trade volume of foreign-funded enterprises grew by 6.4% to 361.14 billion yuan, which generated 3.7 percentage points of growth for the city’s foreign trade in the same period. Meanwhile, the number of Suzhou enterprises involved in foreign trade grew by 10.1% to 21,000, accounting for 76.3% of the city’s total. And in the January-March period, the import-export value of domestic-funded enterprises in the city reached 271.31 billion yuan, increasing by 8.4%.
Suzhou has made remarkable achievements in expanding trade with countries jointly building the Belt and Road and exploring emerging markets. Statistics show that from January to March, Suzhou’s imports and exports with countries along the Belt and Road routes reached 269.32 billion yuan, an increase of 14.3%, accounting for 42.6% of the city’s total. The trade with the ASEAN grew by 29.5% to 118.51 billion yuan, accounting for 18.7% of the city’s total. And Suzhou’s exports with India, African countries, and Australia were 21.66 billion, 8.95 billion, and 8.7 billion yuan, up by 59.5%, 29.8%, and 26.9%, respectively.
In the January-March period, the exports of Suzhou’s equipment manufacturing industry were 314.19 billion yuan, an increase of 11.1%, accounting for 77.9% of the city’s total. The exports of high-end equipment, household appliances, and electric vehicles rose by 20.8%, 21%, and 45.2% to 15.35 billion, 8.87 billion, and 2.76 billion yuan, respectively, which contributed 12.2 percentage points of the increase in the city’s exports.
An official from Suzhou Customs stated that in the first quarter, Suzhou exported industrial robots worth 170 million yuan, representing a year-on-year increase of 47.7%. Suzhou Customs is proactively adopting various measures to help optimize the business environment and offer even better service to enterprises, so as to promote the stable development of foreign trade.
